FUTA Organises Seminar For Female Students On Decency

The Students’ Affairs Division of the Federal University of Technology, Akure on Friday organised a one-day seminar for female students in the various halls of residence on the importance of discipline and decency.

The seminar with the theme, “Justifying the ideals and sanctity of womanhood in Nigerian universities,” was packaged by the Senior Assistant Registrar, Guidance and Counselling in the institution, Mrs. Boye Owele.

Speaking on the occasion, the Dean, Students’ Affairs of the university, Dr. Kayode Alese, said the essence of the programme was “to create awareness and to put our students, most especially women on their toes.”

Alese, who was represented by the Students’ Affairs Officer, Mr. Johnson Eso, said the university wanted the female students to learn the importance of protecting the ideals and sanctity of womanhood in an educational environment like FUTA.

He said, “We want them to know wherever they are that what justifies a person as a responsible woman in the society is decency and discipline.

“The programme is targeted at our ladies because they own the future, hence they should also mould the future of the younger ones.

“In doing that, we have the plans that they would be role models to those in secondary and primary schools to spread the gospel.’’

Alese observed that “If ladies have the strategy to protect the sanctity of womanhood, the issue of rape, prostitution and other anti-social vices on campus would be a thing of the past.”

He stated that the rate of indecent dressings and gross indiscipline among FUTA female students was not pronounced but that the seminar would equip the girls to spread the messages to their peers in other institutions.

He said, “We have reports of excesses and misdemeanour on the part of ladies and men having adverse influences on the younger ones who will be future leaders.

“From FUTA here, we can beam our searchlights to other campuses. This is the maiden programme, next time, we will invite students from other campuses.

“We have been asking our ladies to dress decently and not to dress to kill. Not to disturb others with their dressing,” he added.

He also said that about two per cent of FUTA female students are guilty of indecent dressing while the rate of students/ lecturers harassment in the university had been reduced to about one per cent.

Assistant Registrar, a Counsellor at FUTA, Mrs. Abiola Olusanya, said the seminar “will re-shape the reasoning of the students and would cordon off their minds from the abnormal way of doing things and make them responsible persons within or outside the campus.

Olusanya said the students would also learn how to face their studies and manage the facilities within their halls of residence

She said, “It is important for them to know what womanhood is all about. It is a state of being a woman. They would develop certain features at puberty which would automatically make them attractive to the opposite sex.

“They are the primary agent of socialisation. The nation is nurtured by women. If they don’t learn what it takes to be decent as a woman by what they say, in action and dressing, it will affect them.

“They should be decent in attributes especially in dressing. It will guide against sexual harassment. The male attraction to women is through their eyes. It is natural for men to be attracted towards women. When a woman is decent, they earn a lot of respect and decency,” she added.